Internet Marketer Mistake: Be Careful To Never Make It

When you’re just getting started in this business you’re constantly making mistakes and every one of them seems like a big deal. Eventually though, as you learn more about it, you realize that just about every mistake you make can be easily corrected and life goes on. So you forgot a link. Quick! Pull up that screen and click edit! Meh… You forgot to include the attachment. Just send it again! No big deal. Fix it and move on.

However, there’s one very big mistake I made in the beginning of my online career, one that I really do wish I could take back. If one of those little green men decided to visit me tonight, and he brought along a time machine, I know exactly what point in the past I’d want to return to. The day I decided it wasn’t really important to put an opt-in form on my blog.

The biggest mistake an Internet Marketer can make is to put off starting a list. I hate to say it because it’s been said so many times already, but the money really is in the list and you’re nuts if you think otherwise.

I’ve been working online for a few years now and I’m not the type of person to dwell on the past. I don’t worry about what I coulda done or what I shoulda done. The past is over and done with and you can’t change a minute of it. The best you can hope for is to learn from your mistakes so you can avoid repeating them. And trust me, this is one mistake I’ve never repeated.

I understand that when you’re just getting started you may not have the skills to install that form on your very first blog. But you’re going to have to learn sometime and there’s no time like the present. Aweber is one of the best email service providers online and one of the benefits of using them is that they have operators on real telephones who are happy to walk you through the set up. So that eliminates that excuse.

And once you have everything set up, the hard part is done. It’s not like you have to stand there with a clipboard and manually write down everyone’s name and email address. Aweber does all of that for you. So that eliminates that excuse.

Why is that list so important? Well, if you think about it, how else are you going to contact people and generate leads when you’re working online? You have no idea where your visitors live, they’re from all over the world, so there’s no way you can track down phone numbers or mailing addresses. And eventually you’re going to have hundreds or even thousands of people a day traipsing through your blog. Do you really think you’d have time to call them or send them a postcard anyway?

Generating that list of leads is crucial for any blogger and the sooner you start the better. It’s a lot easier to manage that list and learn how to use it while your blog is still new and just getting a trickle of traffic. Don’t wait until you’re getting thousands of visitors a day before you set up your opt-in form because you’ll have missed so much valuable traffic by then.

Once you have that list your marketing opportunities skyrocket. And because everything is automated you can communicate with everyone on your list by just generating one email. Want to tell all of your loyal followers about the new product you’re promoting? Send one email and you’re done. Want to invite all 20,000 members of your list to visit your new Facebook fan page? Send one email and you’re done.

There are entire ebooks written about all of the different ways you can use your list to generate income and increase your profits. But each and every one of them starts with the same link – “First you need to put an opt-in form right smack dab in the middle of your blog!”

My mother says that when I was growing up I always had to learn all my lessons the hard way. I could never just take someone’s word for it, I always had to screw it up myself. Don’t make the biggest mistake and Internet Marketer can ever make. Don’t make the same mistake I made. Listen to me now and take heed – Set up that opt-in form and start generating your list the moment you launch your blog.